Maybe we're just best friends...?

Ben is uneasy dealing with Kuro's sudden arrival back to Kodon. Will the two return to their old relationship state? Or will it never be the same again?)

Ben slurped on his noodles thoughtfully. It had ben a few weeks since Kuro had come back to them. To be completely honest, Ben couldn't get Kuro off of his mind. IT had been so many years, a betrayal, but for some reason, Ben couldn't bring himself to hate him. He only missed him, but it bothered him a great deal. There was also the introduction of Kuro's Kisa.

Well, Kisa did prove the two had some sort of connection. Ben had Torao, and Kuro had Kisa. Tiger children. Ben chuckled to himself.

"Thanks for the noodles, Kyona," Ben said, putting his bowl on the counter.

"Master Ben!" Her eyes opened and she turned to smile at him, "Good morning!" She stood up to face him properly. "It seems that Kuro isn't going to show up this morning..." she sighed, "again."

Kisa bowed quickly -wanting to avoid eye contact- before returning to her spot.

She had noticed Kuro seemed a bit more toned down since their arrival. She just assumed it was to keep a lower profile as the others had advised. He did however, seem the same overall, but she noticed he was a bit more squeamish whenever he was around Ben.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes until they were interrupted by a holler from across the field.

"Hey Kisa!" This time she was genuinely surprised to see Kuro had actually showed up, since he had been finding all sorts of excuses to not show up to morning meditation. She felt relieved to see him but mainly upset with him and stared him down on his way over. "I brought you some breakfast!" He held out a very cute and nicely wrapped bento box. "It has your favorites~"

Kisa gladly accepted, but she noticed he had only brought one meal with him.

"Did you only come here to bring this to me?"

"Yeah. Just wanted to stop by and drop off your breakfast!" Kuro stayed standing.

"You could say just accept and say thank you."

"...Aren't you going to sit down and join us?" Kisa wasn't going to let him leave that easily.

"Ah, well, uh I kinda already had breakfast back at the cafeteria...?"

"Please stay with us!" She insisted.

After a few moments of strange glance exchanges, Kuro gave in and sat down next to them.

"Good morning you two!" Kuro turned back and grinned. "Hows it going?" He said in a pathetic attempt to make small talk.

“Mm.” He nodded. “Yeah. I did.” No I didn’t. “Who knew sleeping in an actual bed is far more better than havin’ to sleep on the ground?” He chuckled awkwardly, trying to make it seem like a joke.

“Those times weren’t fun at all...” Kisa slowly took a bit out of her spicy dumpling.

“For sure.” He leaned back more, propping himself against one of the beams. “Kodon is everything I-- we ever needed.” His eyes looked contently at the sky. “I’m just glad we could make it back.” Kuro added softly.

Ben wished he could read minds like Spriggan could. Then things would be easier. But now all he had was to sit awkwardly and stare at Kuro, using small talk. Kuro had gotten stronger, Ben noticed. His muscles were more defined, and his eyes were a bit more serious than the years before. Ben felt like he hadn't grown much at all, save for some fancy title.He probably forgot our entire relationship... Ben thought. We were best friends...right?

Ben wanted to ask about the hard times. Ben wanted to know why Kuro left. Ben wanted to know why Kuro came back. But instead he commented: "I'm glad you could make it here too."

Torao perked up and crawled over to Kisa. "Can I try one?" he asked, pointing to a spicy dumpling.

Kisa smiled kindly, “sure you can have one.” She slid her bento box in between them, picking out the one that had the least amount of sauce and crushed pepper flakes. “This one!” She picked it out with her chopsticks and held it out for him to grab himself. “Try it, it’s really good actually.”

“See that?” Kuro said with pride, “I taught her to love spicy food. Now she can’t get enough haha…”More like-- I would only buy her spicy things and she eventually got use to it and now her palate prefers food with more heat.“Remember when I tried getting you to eat ramen the way I prepared it?” Kuro couldn't help but chuckle, “Kyona would get so mad at me when I tried adding more ingredients and spices in her already delicious ramen.”

Ben looked horrified. "You...you don't change anything about Kyona's cooking." This was an unwritten, yet very strongly followed, law of the land at Kodon. Ben felt sorry for Kuro, for now he was on Kyona's bad side--and one really did not desire that.

“Hey in my defense it was a long time ago and I obviously didn’t know any better!” I still don’t know any better.He rubbed the back of his neck, “c’mon gimme a break. It’s not like I made the same mistake twice or anything--! After all I did grab the spicy kind this time.” I guess it’s my fault she finally added spicy alternatives to the menu.

Ben gave a slight laugh. "Well, I guess it's time for me to try out spicy food as well. I don;t remember you liking spicy stuff as a kid. What made you like it so much?" This is the stupidest smalltalk ever, Ben. Wow...he is so much taller than me...I feel so small.

Kuro scoffed, "do you really want to know? Or are you just teasing me?"

No he's not mean enough to do that, right? Ahh I have no idea anymore.

"Honestly, only started liking it because it was different from everyone else's tastes..." Same goes for a lot of things I take up... like my preferred fighting style. Ugh.. see Kuro its stupid things like this being the reason you can't fit in and it's because you don't put up with other people's expectations of you!"I felt the need to go beyond the basic mold I guess. If you haven't yet noticed?" Man I'm so stupid. He's looking up at me with that face again. Help.

“You… want me to be your mommy?” Kuro didn’t know whether to blush in embarrassment or laugh at how strange a request it was. So he did both. “How old are ya kid? I think you’re old enough to know I can’t possibly take up that ro--” Kisa nudged him, giving him a defensive and somewhat jealous stare.

“Alright alright! Sure I’ll be your mommy.” I preferred uncle Kuro though. Is it lame to be called a mommy? Well whatever I could so pull it off anyways. Takeo watch out.

“Since I’m your mommy then that means you should listen to everything I say, right?”

“N-no you don’t have to do that, Torao!” Kisa quickly added, “what it really means that he, WE, will treat you like family...”

Kuro nodded at Rinji. “Yo!” He gave a small hand wave with his left arm.

He playfully nudged Ben, “looks like you have some really cool students, master.”

“Exchanging ideas is nice but I’m in the process of re-choreographing my techniques to better suit my uh, new, one-handed style.” Kuro kept his arm up, still staring at it. “Haven’t gotten around to it lately, though.”

“But you can feel free to develop it now that we’re here!” Kisa pointed out.

Ben gave a nervous chuckle. "Rinji has proven his loyalty and devotion to our class. I have never taught a more devoted student..."

Ben gave a sideways glance at Kuro. He was disappointed they no longer were alone, but at the same time he was relieved. There was so much eh wanted to ask, but then again didn;t want to.

Izo came to Ben's mind. Izo had a lot more insight into how humans interacted and how they might react. Perhaps Izo would know what to say or even ask Kuro...that is if Izo could let down the icy barrier walls he has against the former traitor.